Recent Press

Heffner is, in a modest way, trying to do battle with our fractious world, as seen on TV. The 27-year-old’s weapon of choice is a weekly 30-minute public-affairs television show called “The Open Mind.” Everything about it seems countercultural, even radical, given this disagreeable and high-decibel moment in American history.

This has been a noisy, raucous political season. With name calling, mean spirited back and forth and no small amount of attention paid to poll numbers and Twitter feeds. TODAY’s Harry Smith reports on a television program that refuses to go along.

About the Host

Alexander Heffner was a special correspondent for PBS’s Need to Know chronicling the Millennial vote in 2012. He founded and edited SCOOP08 and SCOOP44, the first-ever national student newspapers covering the 2008 campaign and the Obama administration, and taught a civic education/journalism seminar in New York City public school classrooms.